A screen shot from Pong

SQUARE ENIX

1961: Massachusetts Institute of Technology student Steve Russell creates Spacewar, considered the first interactive computer game. 1972: Magnavox sells the first home video game system, a TV console invented by Ralph Baer called Odyssey. 1972: Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney start Atari Inc. and hire Al Alcorn, who creates Pong, left. Their first arcade machine, set up in a bar in Sunnyvale, Calif., shuts down within days because its coin box is stuffed full of quarters. 1976: Bushnell sells Atari to Warner Communications Inc. for $28 million.

1961: Massachusetts Institute of Technology student Steve Russell creates Spacewar, considered the first interactive computer game. 1972: Magnavox sells the first home video game system, a TV console invented by Ralph Baer called Odyssey. 1972: Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney start Atari Inc. and hire Al Alcorn, who creates Pong, left. Their first arcade machine, set up in a bar in Sunnyvale, Calif., shuts down within days because its coin box is stuffed full of quarters. 1976: Bushnell sells Atari to Warner Communications Inc. for $28 million. (SQUARE ENIX)

1961: Massachusetts Institute of Technology student Steve Russell creates Spacewar, considered the first interactive computer game. 1972: Magnavox sells the first home video game system, a TV console invented by Ralph Baer called Odyssey. 1972: Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney start Atari Inc. and hire Al Alcorn, who creates Pong, left. Their first arcade machine, set up in a bar in Sunnyvale, Calif., shuts down within days because its coin box is stuffed full of quarters. 1976: Bushnell sells Atari to Warner Communications Inc. for $28 million.